can you live in Urbana-Champaign without a car? (Chicago, Vermont: apartments, for rent)

[maryp3177]

Hi, my husband and I are planning to start graduate school next fall and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of our options. We're doing our relocation research early (we now live in Albuquerque, NM).

Currently we live about 2 miles from the University of New Mexico, where we both work. I walk most places or take the bus and my husband is very much into bike riding. We have lived in Albuquerque for 11 years without a car (and Albuquerque's public transit is pretty bad) and would like to know if we can do the same in Urbana-Champaign?

Are there decent (clean) apartments for rent around the university? Is the closest grocery store accessible by bike or walking? How about general "things to do" - do you need to have a car to do them?

Any help you can offer is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[M TYPE X]

Cleaner, nicer, and much more expensive apartments are being built around UIUC all the time. Make a special note on the 'more expensive.' There is talk about building a grocery store in the city, but at the current time, you still need to go to the edge of Champaign or Urbana to go to a supermarket.

Why would anyone want to live in the Midwest without a car? We had another grad student here, from Vermont, who tried it. He's back in New England. A former professor of me moved to ABQ, but unless I found how to contact him, I have no idea if the transit systems compare.

Caveat: I'm from metro Detroit and hence I hate buses and public transport. But, I live three blocks from the university in order to walk (I should get a bike). The car goes out once, maybe twice, per week. I could take the train up to Chicago, but I would rather drive.

Quick note on the graduate programs here: many are world class in terms of faculty, but the administration/staff/policies of the university are awful. I do work with the student senate, and we're sitting in the bar moaning about how weak the graduate student community and union is. Yes, it's our job to make it better, because the administration doesn't seem to care that UIUC will never become "world class" until they figure it out.

Huh, why am I writing about Champaign-Urbana (this is what the people outside the university call it) in the Chicago suburbs subforum? Champaign-Urbana might resemble a Chicago suburb when everyone is in town, but otherwise it's nothing like it, especially in summer.

[mike2006]

A few months late, but to answer the question in the subject, yes it can be done, I did it for 10 years.